O Mortal

Materials: Payne's Grey watercolor on Arches Text Wove

This piece of scripture is one of my favorites-if not my most favorite. These are words I try to live out daily, but often fall short. I have attempted lettering this passage in various ways over the years usually by emphasizing what seem to be the obvious words - act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God. Honestly, I have never been very happy with the result. Following the first class on the Incipit letterform from the St. John's Bible, I spent a fair amount of time going through "Illuminating the Word" by Christopher Calderhead.  The examples in the book are awe inspiring. I finally decided the word that needed the emphasis was "O mortal." I could easily visualize the scripture following in the Incipit letterform. I did some quick pencil sketches which is generally how I work to determine layout and spacing. I then lettered one rough draft to tweak spacing and ligatures on Arches 90lb hot press, but I decided to switch to Arches Text Wove (rough side) for my final draft. The ATW took the Payne's Grey watercolor as a writing fluid much more comfortably for me. As I finished the piece using Fintec gold on the cross, I immediately regretted that I had not paid better attention to gilding during Reggie's 26 Seeds class and all my calligraphic years since. As pretty as the Finetec appeared, I knew a gilded cross would be far superior to what I had just done; and the piece would have looked more polished. So, I set it aside
with a bit of disappointment.

Then, I learned our last SJB class with Reggie would be all about gilding. I nearly had a meltdown and seriously considered forgoing the last class, but my dear friend, Sheryl Bracey, reeled me back in. I persevered and actually enjoyed the last class and the gilding process. As always, we had a
homework assignment, and that was the catalyst for this little piece of lettering to be redeemed. I learned I was able to gild over the Finetec gold. I
was excited to get started. It was all going so well. I kept good notes, applied two thin layers of Instacoll, waited the appropriate amount of time and
burnished the gold down. Then, I tried dusting the excess gold off with a cotton ball. Uh oh .... I forgot about switching to Arches Text Wove. I not only had cotton ball fuzz all over the paper, but I also managed to rub off some of the Payne's Grey in the process. Note to self ... use a hot press paper when gilding. Ultimately, I was able to remove the cotton and also restore the Payne's Grey. Amazingly, the gilding did not appear to be any worse for the wear. Mission accomplished!

Many thanks to Reggie for his patience, and for an excellent, encouraging and inspiring workshop!

Vicki Brandt Knoxville, Tennessee

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